I wish I could help you, but I'm not familiar with those roses and whatever else you have in your pot ghetto. It's a nice bed, and I like the rock border, wish I had the time and energy to finish things off like that. If it were mine, I'd put a cascading rose in it that repeat blooms, can't think of any offhand. Then finish it off with some little plant that spills over the rocks but not too far like dichondra would, can't think of what plant would work. The only thing is that you've got some nice-sounding things behind the peony if I read it right, and they're all obscured by the main event. The peony is beautiful, and I'm not sure why you want to move it, but it's a one-time per year event and then just sits there not doing anything worth looking at. I do love peonies though. I've got a photo of a tree peony, I've looked everywhere, even asked Klehm's Song Sparrow to have a look at it. Nobody knows exactly what it is. I've seen a lot of beautiful ones, but none I like as well as that. Sorry I drifted OT. I just get to thinking and never know what's going to spill off my keyboard after I make my main comment.

We have two 12" deep cabinets under the island (24" deep drawers backed by the 12" cabs). I told the designer he was crazy that I'd never use them. He told me I'd love them. He wins! I love them. One has glasses, cups, plastic kid stuff, water bottles, etc etc.... The other has lunch boxes, coolers, and all of the assorted things that go in them. Next to the stove we have a small upper cabinet that has some nicer glasses (tall beer glasses, etc..) and random mugs in it. The coffee mugs we use every day are above the coffee & tea makers. Wine glasses are in a cabinet next to the fridge with the wine. I wound up splitting up my old huge corner glasses cabinet into 4 places in the new kitchen and it makes so much more sense. Nothing is buried way in the back and everything is where we use it.

First- thanks for all the ideas. Second- yes, I will paint that receptacle. The others in the house look fine but I agree that it will look bad with anything I end up putting on the cabinet. Boopadaboo- the floor is slate that I got at home depot. I got really lucky because it already came with a touch of sealant so when grouting the excess just wiped off. The divider strip is part slate and part glass tiles. The grout is a mocha taupe color but looks pretty light in the pic now that I look at it. It is much darker in person. We had to do a transition in the pattern because of a funny turn the hall makes. I hated it at first but it was the lesser of the evils and now we love it. Every guest comments on how pretty the strip is. I layed every piece, well, dh did about 10 tiles in the laundryroom then gave up. It took a long time doing little by little as each piece had to be hand layed due to varying thickness of the tiles. homeseller2010- the paint is from the Biltmore Estates paint collection at Lowes. It is Olympic paint's Mountain Trail BC-39. It is not pink, not green, looks like my morning coffee with cream in it. susanwrites- the cabinet is a Pulaski we picked up at RCWilley. The tan/gold color in the panels is all crinkled and there is a faint handpainted flower on the doors. The pic does not show it well but it is not straight but actually three curves. It is about 5'x12" which is perfect for a busy hall. Have no idea what I am going to store in it. I think candlesticks, extra votives and seasonal decorations and such. We first saw it at a wholesale furniture shop and admired it there a few months ago. Then we went to RCWilley to get our sofas. There was a huge painting above this cabinet and we ended up purchasing the painting. While pondering the painting, dh started loving the cabinet. He told me this was the chance to get it, now or never. (See he agreed to finally furnish the formal livingroom on the condition that we do everything from sofas to lights to accessories all at once or he would not do it). After seeing the Pulaski tag and looking at the piece more closely I realized this was a good choice. It is much more ornate than my other furniture but it really fits well where we put it and literally everyone who enters comments on it. Someone has a post about having different wood tones and such in the same house. This is a perfect example of how you can mix things if you follow your heart. Everyone- I will surely post my final pics. I am back to work now so my shopping time is limited. I think I am going to get a large, dark mirror of some sort. The basket thing has been moved, was not lovin it on the cabinet. Right now I have my nativity set placed in the middle. I am thinking of some sort of plant or arrangement for the middle or on the right side. DH really wants to keep the lamp there. Will have to see how it works with the mirror I end up with.

Are you asking about the process of how they were designed? I was really most interested in the physical installation, and your pictures made perfect sense. These are inoperable windows, right? So they're more simple than, say, double hung windows, which include mechanisms for opening /closing. You were in complete control of what size windows you installed, right? I assume they're just a standard size? On top of the glass my handyman installed wood pieces to "frame" around the glass and make it look like it's part of the window frame. This "frame" then covered over the second lip (yellow arrow). I'm not sure it the glass was epoxied or siliconed in, but I do know the wood was nailed into the side frames so none of the glass window was compromised. So you could remove the wood /remove the stained glass ... say, if you wanted to move the decorative glass to a different location, or if your exterior window were broken? One concern I have ... and maybe it's dumb. One of my fellow teachers got into BIG TROUBLE over a window a few years ago: His cheap plastic blinds were broken, and his window faces the hot-hot west. His room was roasting and his afternoon students were complaining about the glare, so -- with no help in sight from maintenance -- he took several huge pieces of thick off-the-roll bulletin board paper, and he blocked off the window, sealing it with tape on all four sides. Unfortunately, he chose black paper. A few days later his class heard a boom ... gunshot? fireworks? car backfiring? No. It was his window breaking. He had inadvertently created a greenhouse (the windows are deep set ... you can sit in them) ... and the heat built up to the point that one of his windows broke. He was in BIG TROUBLE for breaking the window and for blocking off his class' emergency exit. So, my concern ... by placing glass-over-glass, you couldn't be setting yourself up for the same situation, could you? I think no. I think the stained glass wouldn't be caulked in /it wouldn't be tight /the wood would allow for expansion or ventilation. Did this topic ever come up with either the artist who made the glass or the handiman who installed it? I'd hate to think that such a lovely (and I'm sure expensive) item could break. In this case, I wouldn't think the exterior window could break ... not from heat. He mostly designed the gingko leaf kitchen window and I made some small changes in terms of scale and placement of the center gingko leaf. That is my favorite! I've visited two stained glass places ... one focuses mainly on doors, and the door to their shop is absolutely gorgeous: Dark wood door with a full-length glass oval ... in the oval, a pink dogwood tree in full bloom. Coupled with pier glass and overhead transom ... also with dogwoods. Note: I love dogwoods. I just had to stand on the porch a while. It was the most gorgeous piece of stained glass I'd ever seen. I wish I'd asked the price, but I strongly suspect I wouldn't be willing to pay it. Nope, dumb me, I just talked about cabinet insets. Thanks for this information.